stories from the hunger project
TRANSCRIPT
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Ending Hunger
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India: Indira Patni
Indira Patni, 35 years old, became the president of her village council
the very first time she participated in elections (the village council is
made up of around 110 households). Her main agenda is to empower
the women in her village and make them aware of things they need
to do make their households and the village better. Her plan is to go
from door to door and mobilize these women to start participating inthe village community meetings. Alcoholism and tree cutting are two
other issues she wants to address as part of her long-term plans. In
addition, old-age pensions and remuneration to the handicapped are
not appropriately handled, and she wants to ensure that the eligible
individuals receive this support from government.
The biggest difference in her life since she started to improve her leadership is that she does not
have to depend on anyone else. She finds her own way and is empowered enough to follow it. Hervision for her village is that all children will have a chance to be educated. At present, the drop-out
rate is high. In the future, Indira envisions fighting for elections at the block and district level.
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Bangladesh: Azad
Azad is an animator* from one of the village communities in
Bangladesh. He took the Animators training and envisoned a
village community where everyone would lead a self-sufficient
life.
Through his initiative Azad and his family are proud owners of 3fish ponds, a small fruit orchard, a vegetable garden, poultry
hatchery, 5 cows, and one goat. At the lunch hosted by him in our
honor, everything he served was produced on his farm. He has
recently planted palm trees, so that they can begin making their
own palm oil for cooking. As if this wasn't enough, he also owns a
small shop in the village market. When asked what motivated
him, Azad said, "It was The Hunger Project's animator training
which gave me the power to envision a better future not only formyself, but for my whole community."
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Bangladesh: Roksana Parvin
Animator Roksana Parvin (Dipu) has started a business teaching various
classes to members of her community. She teaches a different class each day of
the week: beauty salon; cooking, vegetable art, painting, embroidery and
tailoring.
Her students range in age from 20-60. The classes that Dipu runs are
government approved, and are a source of income for her, where her studentspay a fee to take the classes, thus supporting her and her year-old baby.
Her husband abandoned her when she spoke up against his
abuse, and has since married another woman. Dipu derives her
strength from the VCA and Animators Training she took a few
years ago.
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Uganda: Mr. & Mrs. Mugerwa
Mr. and Mrs. Mugerwa of the Namayumba Epicenter have been partners with The
Hunger Project (THP)-Uganda since 2004. Both have taken full advantage of
numerous Vision, Commitment and Action Workshops (VCAWs) and continue to
learn new and innovative ways of conducting business, generating income and
empowering their family and community. As a result, they are thriving, empowered
and inspiring Hunger Project partners.
Their numerous successes have enabled the Mugerwas to build apermanent house, complete with solar panels for energy conservation, to
send their children to school full-time and to begin plans to expand their
shop and dairy farm. Mrs. Mugerwa plans to send all of the children to
university with their ever-increasing savings. "My husband and I are change
agents empowering people to end their own hunger and poverty," she said.
Among their many VCAW-inspired projects, the Mugerwas have innovatedand continue to maintain a dairy farm, a granary, a piggery, an underground
well for their home, a banana plantation and a trading shop that serves
several of the surrounding villages. Their now-thriving dairy farm houses
thirty heifers producing an average of 20 liters of milk each. With each liter
fetching an average of UGX 500 (US$0.21), the dairy income is allocated to
the operational costs of maintaining the farm and home costs.
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Mexico: Las Esperanzas
Las Esperanzas, The Hope, is an all-women income-generating project, which is
financed though The Hunger Project (THP)-Mexico's partnership with Mexico's
Social Development Ministrys Local Development Agency program. The eight
women (ages 25-65) of Las Esperanzas live in an isolated community in Zacatecas,
northern Mexico, where only 10 percent of women are involved in income-
generating activities. Traditionally women in this region have no income and
depend on the few dollars sent by their husbands working in the United States.
For their peers in the community, these women are an example of perseverance and entrepreneurial spirit and
are encouraging other women and men to consider the possibility of creating their own visions and projects.
With the help of THP-Mexico, these women created a vision for
their community, one in which they could lead a good life with
their families, and one in which their children would not have to
migrate North. They realized that in order to achieve this they
would need enough income to be self-sufficient. Following
several conversations, the local assembly granted Las Esperanzas
a piece of land for their proposed chicken farm.
After 12 months of facing many obstacles, including getting the
land, financing the equipment and supplies, and undergoing skills
training, they are producing 1,000 eggs daily and grossing $1,000
pesos (USD $77.00) every day in sales.